Christmas is Coming

Advent is upon us and Christmas has been coming slowly to our house as well. This is the first year I feel like we are able to really start some traditions that will carry on for years to come. I think that is because we are staying on the Island for Christmas this year and Joash is old enough to really get it.

So we have made Cut-out Sugar Cookies....

He was a great helper.

Joash helped with every step of the process.

We got our Christmas tree yesterday...in the rain. There is a Christmas tree farm not to far away, so we took the whole family yesterday and hunted for the perfect tree. It was a bit rainy, but we all had boots and rain coats on, so we still had a good time.

This tree is our Advent Tree. We are going through the book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. It is a lovely book and one that we intend to use for years to come. The ornaments on this tree go with the reading for each day. They were some free printable pages from her website. This year I colored them, but in the future I hope the kids will do that.

And we are also doing 25 books for Christmas. I went through our book collection and pulled every book that had any sort of Christmas connection at all and then got the rest I needed at Value Village. So every morning after the kids are all dressed and ready for the day, Joash picks out a book, unwraps it and we read it together. It has been a fun little tradition and one that I intend to continue as well.

And that is about it. Joash has his very first Christmas program this coming Friday, so that should be fun. It is our overall goal to show our kids that Jesus is what Christmas is really all about and we have had a lot of fun so far doing that.

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A Perspective

I have already mentioned my "Word of the Day" screen saver that I have on my laptop that is hooked up to the projector in my room. I am learning that the words go in cycles a bit, so the same word will pop up in several classes during the day. Today's popular word was "entitlement." A fantastic word to share with teenagers who often think they are entitled to a whole lot of stuff. In fact, we as humans often think we are entitled to a whole lot of stuff when really we are fallen people who deserve nothing but death. We so often miss how wonderful and blessed our life really is and we get caught up on the little things. This video sort of puts that in perspective in a rather humorous way. I am by no means promoting this comedian, but if you take what he says to heart, it is so true. We live in an amazing world, created by an amazing God. We really should be happy with the blessing we have been given.

Getting Big...And Strong

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An Afternoon at the Park

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The Talens' Tales

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